Finnair prepares for its first Airbus A350-900 delivery

Finnair (Helsinki) will soon take delivery of its first Airbus A350-900. Yesterday (September 16) Airbus took the pictured Airbus A350-941 F-WZFM (msn 018) for its first flight from and back to Toulouse, France. Finnair has 19 copies on order which will replace the aging A340-300s and allow for expansion. Finnair expects to receive the first four copies by the end of this year. Another seven will be delivered in 2016 and 2017, with the remaining eight to be delivered between 2018 and 2023. Finnair plans to phase out its A340 aircraft by the end of 2017, leaving the entire widebody fleet comprised of only Airbus A330 and A350 aircraft.

Finnair made this short statement and issued this Airbus photo (below) on social media:

Airbus took our ‪#‎A350Finnair‬ for her very first flight yesterday in France! She took off shortly after 1 PM (CET) and landed in Toulouse after a 6 hour flight.

Photo Below. Airbus. F-WZFM departs from Toulouse on the first flight.

Top Copyright Photo: Eurospot/AirlinersGallery.com. The first A350 arrives back at TLS after the successful first flight.

Finnair plans to introduce the new type on October 5 on a domestic flights from Helsinki to Rovaniemi and Oulu.

As we previously reported, Finnair is operating a series introductory flights in Europe during October.

Below images: Finnair. Business class and economy class on the new A350-900.

In other news, Finnair also gave an update on the possible cancellations for tomorrow:

Due to the nationwide demonstration by Finnish labor unions on Friday September 18, Finnair will have to cancel 1 domestic flight on Thursday and 15 domestic flights on Friday. We intend to fly all our other flights on Friday, but considerable delays can be expected due to the limited operational capability of the airport.